Metallica’s New ‘Murder One’ Song Is a Tribute to Lemmy

The band paid a visit to the Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM yesterday, performing a few numbers in the studio and sitting for a lengthy interview that touched on a number of topics — including the revelation that the Hardwired track "Murder One" is intended as a tribute to the late Motörhead frontman.

"Motörhead had a lot to do with Metallica sitting here right now," explained James Hetfield (via Rolling Stone). "But just Lemmy as an entity, as kind of a father figure, he helped us a lot. He was unafraid. And he was a character. And he was himself. And we all respected that so much. He did his own thing to the last breath. No matter who you are, how could you not be inspired by that?"

"In the summer of 1981, I followed Motörhead around on tour," added Lars Ulrich. "That was what made me want to be in a band. When I came back to Southern California and called up James and said, 'Listen, we've got to give this a shot.' ... Motörhead is the catalyst."

As previously reported, the members of Metallica paid their respects to Lemmy often over the years, doing everything from playing his 50th birthday party as a one-off tribute band dubbed the Lemmys to offering one of the first public tributes from a peer after his death.

Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct is scheduled to arrive in stores Nov. 18. Check out the album track "Moth Into Flame" and watch Metallica's Howard Stern Show performances of "Master of Puppets" and "Sad But True" below.